The glint of metal in the morning sun from a piece of escape tat someone had left on a 6a summoned us like a beacon to do the warm up climb on the aptly named Jornee De Merde. And shit it was. So shit that we stopped at the half way, just below the glistening booty. Time to up the quality: Grid Iron, 6c was a magnificent climb, most enjoyable and well recommended. The crux is short lived if you can climb through it and the pump always threatens to come but there are rests to keep your forearms in tiptop shape.

And so on to the next. Hickory Dickory Dock, 7a. The start isn’t great, but the climbing soon improves. No onsight for me as the crux throws me off, but one retry on the first hard move gets a nice little sequence sorted, then to the real crux, the thin overlap after the orange section. Kudos to Beta-master Marc for the unlock key, and a second try gets a nice redpoint. A really nice climb this, and substantially harder than Jack The Smuggler. People seem to think Smuggler is a 7a, even though it is listed as such on 8a and UKC, but Gary’s got it right at 6c+. Anyway, there’s also a really stretchy move on Hickory that get’s our boffins in the R&D department buzzing – more on that later.

We finish off the day over at Cul De Sac on the one-move wonder 7a+, Flubber Lub. Beta is worked out for next visit’s send. A good day at a good crag.